Flame
Rookie
Causam ago dementia
Posts: 198
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Post by Flame on May 5, 2011 22:02:37 GMT -5
Flame is not well-trained in mêlée combat and it shows quickly when Spinister rushes him; he wails, shocked and angry, affronted by this assault when he has been nothing but cooperative, and tries ineffectually to fend off the Decepticon's efforts to restrain him. He's hampered by his inexperience, by the lingering stiffness from the extractor's paralytic shock, and by the sudden, terrifying thought that this Decepticon can scan electronic signals – communications, radio, visual, thoughts. It makes sense for an interrogator, and surely this is an interrogator or why else would he ask so many questions of a clearly imprisoned Autobot?
Briefly when the bindings are secured, Flame continues to struggle. When he wonders if this Decepticon knows he thought about the rust injections, he goes quiescent again. Still, docile, because if he cooperates, if he cooperates, it will all be over that much sooner.
"Charges?" he wheezes. It's difficult to speak clearly bound up as he is, face down on the floor. There's a rock digging into his chin and he tries to knock it away as best he can. "Illicit spark transplants," and this is the only one he's truly bitter about, for the others he lists without the same unhappiness, simply upset for the misinterpretation involved in, "circuit-boarding, desecration of corpses," and blank confusion for the rest, "rust injections, harvesting morphcores, and execution of civilians. Chief Justice Tyrest explained them all very clearly." And in his querulous tone and in the bemused knitting of his brow, Flame can't be any clearer that the most succinct of explanations still didn't clarify for him why he was there.
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Post by Spinister on May 5, 2011 22:19:21 GMT -5
//Not yet,// Spinister answer Swindle. Flame is still answering questions, even if he's struggling.
Flame just admitted that he's one of the worst criminals. What was he expecting, that Spinister would give him energon goodies and a pat on the back? Spinister doesn't like criminals any more than anyone else does!
People keep thinking Spinister is a mind-reader. Maybe Spinister needs to work on that!
Rather than ask Flame if he has a spark or a brain module or a lasercore or a tiny demon giving him life, Spinister pulls out a hand-held medical scanner to check on Flame's general status and hopefully get an answer about Flame's probable reality.
Chief Justice Tyrest... hmm. Yeah, a lot of this is nonsense only Autobots would care about. Spinister inquires, "Your own people put you on trial? Sentenced you to yanking out your soul?"
Spinister can give Flame a better final end than that!
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Swindle
Major
This space for rent.
Posts: 571
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Post by Swindle on May 6, 2011 20:37:17 GMT -5
Swindle silently compares Flame's rap sheet with his own. He's never performed an illicit spark transplant, but then, no-one ever offered him money to do it. Taking parts isn't really the same thing as desecrating, right? Define 'civilian.'
//We sure we want to off this guy at all? He's got quite the resume, apparently. And reason to hate the Autobots. Could be useful.//
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Flame
Rookie
Causam ago dementia
Posts: 198
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Post by Flame on May 6, 2011 23:19:55 GMT -5
Growing tired already of the questions that seem neverending and now annoyed with his awkward position as well, Flame heaves a deep sigh. He is tired, he hurts in his joints and in his still intact spark, he is not built to bend this way, he is getting rock dust in his mouth. Gritty, metallic stuff, harsh and dry on the sensors.
"Yes," he answers, almost a whine, the sibilant a long hiss. His voice rises slightly in pitch, hurt beyond insult and edged with a mounting hysteria, as he adds, "I was tried and found guilty."
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Post by Spinister on May 7, 2011 8:41:15 GMT -5
//He probably did that to us!// Spinister hisses at Swindle.
Look, Swindle. Spinister is jonesing for a murder cigarette. This should not be so difficult to understand. Why does Swindle have to go and throw up obstacles?
God slagging damn it, Swindle! Now Spinister has to check and make sure that Flame wasn't doing this to Autobots. Spinister might be denied his delicious, carcinogenic murder cigarette, and then he'll need to go around with a doofy murder patch on his arm to scratch his itch.
Spinister tries to yank Flame back up a bit, which would at least get Flame's face out of the rocks. Then he tries to pop open a panel and tap Flame's chronometer, so he can get his timestamp. Spinister asks, only begrudgingly, "Were your crimes against Autobots or Decepticons?"
If it was against humans or something, Spinister doesn't even care. Play wishbone with the little suckers and see how they go 'splat' from a mile high. It's all fair game.
His Nebulans object. Spinister doesn't care about that, either.
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Swindle
Major
This space for rent.
Posts: 571
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Post by Swindle on May 7, 2011 21:14:08 GMT -5
//Oh, he's a scientist! It doesn't matter who he did it to!// Swindle transmits with a dismissive wave. //I mean, it probably didn't matter to him. I know his type, I buy enough of my stuff from them. They don't think of it as doing things to people, they just get caught up in their latest experiment or whatever, and everything is just a variable, including the test subjects. And then once they're done you've got a marketable doomsday weapon you can mass-produce.//
The merchant pauses, thoughtful. //Besides, maybe if we bluff well enough, we can trade him for Hook.// Probably not, but Swindle would have fun trying to run the con, at least. //Hm, or maybe Flame has medical training. If he's done spark transplants . . .//
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Flame
Rookie
Causam ago dementia
Posts: 198
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Post by Flame on May 7, 2011 22:11:36 GMT -5
Flame yelps, grimacing, when Spinister hauls him off the floor just that little bit. The real panicking doesn't set in until he realises that there is a Decepticon poking into his systems, prying and peeking, searching, seeping and insidious through his circuits. Eating away at him.
For an answer, all the eerie interrogator gets are incoherent shrieks and aimless, violent thrashing.
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Post by Spinister on May 7, 2011 23:26:18 GMT -5
Spinister thinks Swindle is queer kind of maladaptive mentally ill. Does Swindle remember what happened the last time Swindle tried to sell an Autobot to to the Autobots? Needlenose tried to kill Swindle. Spinister doesn't even think that the Autobots would want a Flame, given that they have an Emirate Xaaron. Besides, Spinister thinks he'd be doing a disservice to his comrades in arms to let this little Autobot creep anywhere near them with medical tools.
Still, he should offer defection, just for protocol's sake, if Flame ever snaps out of that little freakout he's having. Spinister basks in the shrieks and thrashing, feeding on Flame's fear. He's not an empath like Rampage (not that Spinister knows about that), but this is still delicious, anyway.
Spinister gives Flame a moment, and then he asks, soft as a smothering pillow, "Are you a good Autobot, Flame? Or would you like to be something better?"
He turns his gaze pointedly over to Swindle's Decepticon symbol.
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Swindle
Major
This space for rent.
Posts: 571
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Post by Swindle on May 8, 2011 8:20:42 GMT -5
Swindle probably does have some kind of maladaptive mental illness, seeing as he is an Animated Decepticon, but he's not displaying the symptoms right now. He doesn't want to sell Flame to the Autobots! He wants to trade him for Hook! The Decepticons get back a high-ranking officer and their best medic, and the Autobots get a crazy mad scientist who may have the murder-hots for their leader. It's a good trade.
Besides, the arms dealer vividly remembers his last run-in with the Mayhem Attack Squad. He has to stop himself from flinching when he sees Zigzag in the hall. It's why he's trying so hard to be friendly with Spinister! And to get him to stop smoking. Those murder-cigarettes are horrible for his murder-lungs.
Hm, but Spinister is being all smooth and manipulative now. He's never seen this side of the mech before. He leans in to watch, making sure his Decepticon symbol is helpfully prominently displayed.
Skippable for the moment
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Flame
Rookie
Causam ago dementia
Posts: 198
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Post by Flame on May 8, 2011 9:29:28 GMT -5
It takes all of that moment merely for Flame to quiet down and recognise that he isn't being disintegrated with Gideon's Glue; his terror isn't so easily quieted as the histrionics and he remains a tense, trembling wreck, clinging to the conversation like shelter in a storm of agonising memories, hands grasping at empty air as if to seize back his disrupted calm. He tries to follow the turn of Spinister's head and see what it is Death wants him to see. It's a painful way to crane his neck and several small actuators squeal in protest.
"I – I tried," he says plaintively, voice small and numb, suddenly bright optics fixed on Swindle's brand but seeing somewhen else – a moment almost corresponding with his timestamp, which has likely come up in Spinister's search by now. He rambles on, "I tried – I couldn't stop it. My unit… my men…." His face twists up in a rictus of grief and his voice chokes. "Gone, so many gone. I couldn't save them all. I'm not… I'm no good." A good Autobot commander could have rescued his troops at Babu Yar somehow, Flame is sure, in the same way he's sure he was blamed for the disaster. "I'm no good," he repeats. His optics are dull again and his voice flat. "Emirate Xaaron made a long list of my ethics violations to hammer the point home."
He has no answer yet for the second question. Do they mean to offer him a chance at defection? It seems nonsensical, and if they know what he's done to their kind in retaliation for Babu Yar…. He blinks, looking from bright-eyed consort back to lurid Death with uncertainty.
"…I," is all he croaks, then falls silent.
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Post by Spinister on May 8, 2011 13:11:45 GMT -5
Curse Swindle and his Pocahontas ways.
"Spineless pathetic wretch," Spinister says scornfully, letting the words drop like viscous drops of stinging acid.
The mention of an Emirate Xaaron does catch Spinister's attention. Flame has both a spark and brain module, according to the scan, which would nominally suggest the same reality as Runamuck, but Runamuck didn't mention any Emirate Xaaron.
Spinister asks, patient and relentless, like abrading sand in the wind, soft, so soft, but a wearing doom in the end, "Why were you an Autobot, Flame? What did you stand for?" He uses past tense, as if Flame is already dead.
Most Autobots have no better answer than 'stopping you', and that is a lousy answer, Spinister feels.
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Flame
Rookie
Causam ago dementia
Posts: 198
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Post by Flame on May 8, 2011 20:49:29 GMT -5
Many things is Flame, and many things he has been called in his time. Spineless is not one of these things. His mood flickers and changes direction like his namesake in the wind and he thrashes again, this time in anger. He tries to flip himself onto his side so he can turn his furious stare on Death. He's already gone mad battling the murderer once. What's another break, another slip?
"Spineless?" he hisses, and if he could but spit in Death's eye, he would and gladly. "I gave up everything to save lives! I mended and patched with the rain burning me alive! What do you know of it? How could you understand? You who steals in quiet and robs men of everything, how could you understand sacrifice? I was a scientist!" he cries, the word ending in a sob. "I led my crew for exploration, for knowledge! And then – then–" And then they ran headlong into Hell itself. "But we were called to fight, and we fought, and died. Died to protect the galaxy from you!" His voice breaks finally, ragged, enraged, "And I was condemned!"
He was justified in what he did to those Decepticons. He knows it. He would be justified, he thinks, should he ever meet Tyrest and Xaaron again.
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Post by Spinister on May 8, 2011 21:27:20 GMT -5
"That's a shoddy answer," Spinister says flatly. He lets go of Flame and lets him flip if he wants. Spinister draws Singe again and circles around Flame.
"Fact is, I've put my life on the line for my men before." Spinister has! "I'll do it again." Then Thunderwing will shoot him. "I've been strapped to a table and injected with an entropic chemical that crumbled my metal to dust in the course of keeping the peace, to protect the public and keep them safe. But what would you know of that, Autobot? You were too busy standing for nothing more than my death because of the badge I wear, the badge I was built with."
Has he drawn a bead on Flame's head again? Seems Spinister has.
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Flame
Rookie
Causam ago dementia
Posts: 198
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Post by Flame on May 8, 2011 22:53:48 GMT -5
Lies. Decepticon lies. Autobot lies. Everybody lies. Flame glares right down the barrel aimed at his head, doubting every word.
"You think," he mutters, "that because I was protecting others, I sought out Decepticons? Did you deliberately seek us, peacekeeper?" The title comes out mocking, biting. "Or did you do your job?" Rooting out the enemy isn't the same as protecting those who need it, a distinction to Flame that may have kept his unit in obscurity until he doomed them all by trying to raise them out of the faceless ranks. "My unit was sent in against Gid–"
He hiccups, almost unable to even say that name, and when he continues, there is panic creeping in at the edges again. He can't help it and he can't stop it; he can't find that numb place where he shuts away the memories and the screams he can still hear if he sits still long enough.
"Gideon… attacked. That glue – it was a clear sky and it rained. It rained and the rain ate at us, burnt us, melted through us. My crew were disintegrating right in front of me. I had to do something." Abruptly, he doesn't see Swindle or Spinister any more; his optics turn hazy again, faraway, and rage gives way to pain. "I couldn't – I couldn't just watch them die," he rasps. "The rain stuck to everything, it seeped into everything… their bodies were ruined. But I could save them if I tried – and I tried so hard." He slumps, trying to bury his face against the floor, shrinking in on himself, spent. "Finding other bodies was the only way. I saved them." He shudders, asking softly, "Why was that wrong?"
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Post by Spinister on May 9, 2011 10:28:37 GMT -5
Don't complain about Gideon's Glue to the Blight junkie, Flame. Spinister doesn't have much sympathy for anyone or anything, and he tends to save what he does have to other Decepticons. Worthy people. Not sniveling Autobot trauma victims.
Spinister comments to Swindle, //Think he's from Runamuck's reality, the one with sparks and brain modules. If that's right, the Decepticons there rose out of the dissatisfied underclasses. The Autobots lived in wealth and splendour, uncaring about the suffering of the lower classes. The Decepticons wanted social change first and then moved on to conquest later. Your buddy boy there would have been in a comfortable ivory tower exploration vessel while your alternate scraped for credits playing shell games in the gutter.//
Spinister puts a few things together. Execution of civilians+desecration of corpses+illicit sparkcore transplants=crazy here killed civilians to find enough spare bodies for his dying soldiers? That's actually fine under Marvel Decepticon ethics; Straxus certainly did similar! Autobots tend to whine about that sort of thing, however. Spinister decides to try to call Flame out on that, "'Finding' bodies, huh? Don't suppose anyone was using those bodies? Like, oh... civilians? Seems to me, Flame, that you'd do anything to see your chosen people survive, and survival at all costs is not Autobot behaviour. Autobots will sacrifice for so-called 'innocents'. Decepticons sacrifice for the people who matter."
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